Latest news

Redbox has announced a new two-year deal with Warner Bros. to release top Blu-ray and DVD discs in Redbox kiosks after the standard 28-day delay window.
"As America's destination for new-release home entertainment, Redbox is pleased to establish a new deal with Warner Bros. that allows us to continue to add value to our customers and content creators," said Mark Horak, president of Redbox. "Redbox remains committed to driving substantial industry revenue and providing consumers with affordable access to new-release movies." "Redbox is an important partner," said Ron Sanders, president, Warner Bros. World Wide Home Entertainment Distribution. "And I am very pleased that we have finalized a new two year agreement."

A few months after announcing the service, Sony has launched PlayStation Music on the PS3, PS4 and Xperia devices in 41 markets.

PlayStation Music is powered by Spotify and has over 30 million tracks and 1.5 billion playlists.

Reads the post: "PS4 users can soundtrack their gaming sessions with their favorite songs. To make controlling your music even easier PS4 and PS3 users will be able to take advantage of the Spotify Connect feature on the official Spotify app for Android/iOS. You can select a playlist, skip songs, adjust the volume, and more."

PSN users can link their existing accounts to Spotify but you will need to pay $9.99 per month for the premium subscription that offers unlimited music.

We now have some alleged details about the upcoming OnePlus Two smartphone that is set for release later this year.

OnePlus, a Chinese startup, became pretty popular for its high-end specs and low price. The device was also hard to get since OnePlus had a ridiculous invite system that has only since changed to a more open system.

According to the new reports, the new device will have "laser focus fingerprint identification embedded in the home button." In addition, the phone is said to look like the Oppo Find 7, which is another device with top specs and a low price, especially when compared to the iPhone and Samsung line of devices.

The new OnePlus Two is expected to launch in the Q3, and there will be more details likely in short order.

Microsoft has announced that Halo 5: Guardians will be released for the Xbox One on October 27th.

343 Industries studio head Bonnie Ross also added a little background about the game, noting it deliver "epic scope and scale and drama," while expanding and changing the existing Halo universe.

"We wanted Halo 5: Guardians to be the game that pays off the epic promise of the Halo universe in scope and scale and drama," Ross said. "We want to amaze players with the sheer size of the worlds and battles they'll experience, even as they question everything they thought they knew about its heroes, marvels, and mysteries."

According to a new Vice report, darkweb sellers claim to have thousands of active Uber login credentials for sale, for as low as $1 a piece.

With a username and password, you have access to a user's trip history, as well as the last four digits and expiration date of the attached credit or debit card and their telephone number.

Of course, you can also get a cab with the information and travel anywhere you want on someone else's dime.

Uber says they have not seen any security breaches, but the report verified that quite a few of the accounts were active by calling the users and reading back the info. "We investigated and found no evidence of a breach. Attempting to fraudulently access or sell accounts is illegal and we notified the authorities about this report. This is a good opportunity to remind people to use strong and unique usernames and passwords and to avoid reusing the same credentials across multiple sites and services."

While Uber may not have been directly breached, if Uber user's info was taken from any other breach and they used the same password and user combo on Uber, the info could have been compromised that way.

First started five years ago after Microsoft failed to acquire its smaller rival, the two companies have extended negotiations on a search partnership between their Bing and Yahoo search engines.

The deal is a ten-year deal, but the contract allowed for a termination or re-negotiation after five years.

That point hit on February 23rd, but they have agreed to extend the negotiations to 60 days from 30.
"We value our partnership with Microsoft and continue discussions about plans for the future. We have nothing further to announce at this time," Yahoo said in a statement.

The two tech giants teamed up to take on Google but Google's share has not dipped in the last five years.

Pebble easily crushed crowdfunding records with its latest campaign, which just closed on Friday.

The Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel watches were the fastest to reach $1 million, taking just 49 minutes to do so. Additionally, by the time the campaign was done, the company had raised $20.3 million, crushing the previous record set by the "smart" cooler 'Coolest Cooler.'

Altogether, 78,463 people pledged, each paying at least $159 for the upcoming watch, which will retail for $199. The Pebble Time Steel will retail for $299.
"We cannot thank the Pebble community enough for their monumental support," Eric Migicovsky, Pebble CEO, said in a statement. "We continue to listen to and be inspired by the backers who believed in us and supported our vision from day one."

Differentiating the watch from its predecessors is the color e-paper display, which is the first time Pebble has gone a route other than black and white. The device also has 7 day battery life for the Time and 10 days for the Steel, a big jump from Android Wear and the Apple Watch which normally require a charge in under 24 hours.

Members of the Science for the Masses collective have created eye drops that allow you to see in the dark without the need for specialized goggles.

Using a chemical called Chlorin e6 (Ce6), which has been used safely in cancer treatments and to cure night blindness, the drops gave the biohackers the ability to see in the dark for short periods of time. The chemical compound is extracted from deep sea fish that hunt in the pitch black.
"There are a fair amount of papers talking about having it injected in models like rats, and it's been used intravenously since the '60s as a treatment for different cancers," Science for the Masses medical officer Jeffrey Tibbetts said. "After doing the research, you have to take the next step."

The human experiment received 50 microliters of Ce6 into his conjunctiva sacs, which gave him the ability to see in the dark at up to 50 meters.

There had been rumors that Samsung had finally listened to complaints and reduced the insane amount of bloatware on its flagship devices, but that does not appear to be true.

Those with early access to the S6 and S6 Edge have counted 56 pre-installed apps, although Samsung of course is not completely to blame. Android owners know that Google has a decent amount of Google-related bloat and carriers add their own, as well, but Samsung has decided to include all their S suite of apps (Voice, Health, etc) and additional apps like Microsoft OneDrive, Facebook, Instagram and more.

By comparison, stock Nexus devices - even those from carriers, have 35 or less apps.

Not all is lost, however, as Samsung will allow you to "disable" the apps, thus removing them from the app drawer and the homescreen, although they remain taking up precious internal storage space, and in cases like Facebook, mining all your personal data and then some.

Roystan Ross developed a desktop version of the game (well, the first level so far at least), which can be played for Windows, Mac and Linux, and there is a demo of the playback after the jump. The game has been remastered with more modern HD graphics and includes gamepad support including DS3, 4 and Xbox One and 360 controllers.

The developer has put a lot more technical know-how in his blog post, which can be found here.

At the same link, you can download the files, since the browser version does not seem to be working at the moment.

By Godwin's law it was inevitable that Apple was to be called nazis and/or Hitler on heated internet discussions but for it to come up in a smartphone platform war between the companies themselves was a little unexpected.

Jia Yueting, the CEO of a Chinese online video service LeTV, has just compared the offerings of Apple to the National Socialists lead by the Führer himself.

As LeTV is looking to enter the smartphone market with an upcoming X600, it wants to depict Apple's platform as if controlled by an evil dictator that doesn't allow anything fun. Android on the other hand is depicted as the young people who do what they want.

Of course the X600 comes equipped with the latter and according to The Verge it might feature 4GB of RAM and a 5.5-inch display.

The fellow Chinese manufacturers, like Xiaomi, offer more obvious competition to LeTV in their home market and although an easier target, Apple and how its perceived will probably not be determining the success of LeTV.

Yahoo has been using Microsoft's Bing since 2010 when the company decided to scrap its own search engine. The continuation of the collaboration is currently under scrutiny and it seems that there are some problems finding a solution, Reuters reports.

The ongoing negotiations between Yahoo and Microsoft have been extended by another month after the original deadline was set to February 23. Obviously a solution that satisfies both parties is yet to be found, even after not one but two extensions.

The original contract is valid for 10 years but included was an agreement for possible reconsideration after half way point – where we are at now in 2015. The partnership has not managed to sway search engine usage much to their favor as Google still dominates.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo CEOs have changed in the past five years. Especially under the leadership of the new CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo has been said to be investing in areas that would allow it to separate from the Microsoft partnership

Amazon has made huge efforts to offering a more competitive cloud storage to compete the likes of Google, Apple, and Microsoft. The new unlimited services provide the market leading value without a doubt.

The $12 a year Unlimited Photos package provides exactly that; storage for unlimited amount of photos plus another five gigabytes for other files. The more comprehensive $60 a year Unlimited Everything allows you to store all kinds of files without a cap.

The service is now four times cheaper than Apple's and twice as cheap as Google's offerings. Both of which offer a terabyte of storage. It even tops Microsoft's $7/month package, although Microsoft currently offers compellingly Office 365 along with it.

Where Amazon might go wrong is that – at least as far as we've noticed &;ndash; in the new scheme it does not offer a free service at all – unless you count the three month trial period. Microsoft and Google give you 15 gigabytes and Apple 5 gigabytes just for registering an account.